Only those landing from Mars for tonight's Europa League match between Celtic and Rapid Vienna may be unaware of the historical significance of the tie. It has, indeed, been well nigh impossible to pick up a Scottish newspaper within the last month without a random Austrian chap airing his views on the infamous battle – literally – between the pair 25 years ago.

Celtic's captain, Stephen McManus, yesterday labelled the build-up to Rapid's Glasgow return as "embarrassing". Only media analysts can gauge whether he has a point; for the rest of us, this has proved an intriguing, if sometimes tedious, backdrop to an otherwise routine European fixture.

This long story is not particularly easy to cut short. Celtic had lost a bad-tempered Cup Winners' Cup first leg in Vienna 3–1, with Alan McInally sent off and Peter Grant accused of stamping on one of the Austrian players. The Parkhead side were later fined by Uefa on account of their players' behaviour; it was the start of European football's governing body's crucial influence on the tie.

A rousing night in the east end saw Celtic overturn the deficit to win 4-3 on aggregate. Their third goal, seen in the context of modern football laws, involved a clear foul by Tommy Burns on the Rapid goalkeeper, and was quite enough for the visiting players. They wanted an alternative way out.

A bottle landed on the pitch, thrown from the Celtic support. Depending on your witness, this landed either five feet or 20 metres away from Rapid's goalkeeper, Herbert Feurer, who promptly collapsed in a heap, left the field bandaged up and led those within the Austrian camp to seek, unsuccessfully, the abandonment of the game. Ten minutes of stoppage time were required following this unseemly scene.

It later transpired that the linesman on Celtic Park's former "Jungle" side had been struck by all kinds of missiles, mainly coins. Somehow aware of this, Rapid adopted a tale that Feurer had merely been struck by an object, rather than the bottle, in lodging a formal complaint to Uefa.

The rest is history: the match was ordered to be replayed at a neutral venue – Old Trafford, where a bigger crowd appeared than in Glasgow – and Rapid won 1-0. In the midst of all this, the Austrian side's goalkeeper was attacked by a Celtic fan and another fan booted Peter Pacult in the privates. Pacult, now Rapid's coach, fittingly scored the only goal in Manchester. The poor man cut a frustrated figure at his pre-match briefing last night, forced to answer question after question regarding the events of 25 years ago.

Celtic have seemingly backed down on their marketing stance in recent days. They had billed Rapid's visit, unapologetically, as "25 Years On" in an obvious attempt to sell tickets. Yet the club are perfectly aware that disorder, triggered by fans who still harbour a wild grudge, would be seriously bad for their reputation.

Celtic's chief executive, Peter Lawwell, has now issued what is tantamount to a plea for calm. "Much has been said about the events of 1984," he said. "But, as a club in 2009, all we are focusing on is what happens on the pitch on Thursday evening."

Even Gordon Smith, the chief executive of the Scottish FA, got in on the act, saying: "I think we have to call for calm. It's moved on 25 years, it's different people at the clubs, different players. It's not like it happened 18 months ago. There should be an element of friendship in the game regardless of what happened in the past, and hopefully both clubs will play this in normal circumstances and have a good match played in a sporting fashion."

It must be noted that tonight's game has hardly caught the imagination of punters; 40,000 are expected at Celtic Park, 20,000 less than capacity. Hopefully the lunatics do not take over. Rapid's followers, after all, did not have the look of shrinking violets at Aston Villa. They are unlikely to turn up in Glasgow and accept abuse.

Former players, it must be recognised, have played a big part in stirring up matters. Frank McGarvey has been the most vocal, a string of explosions regarding his hatred – no, really – for Rapid emerging recently. Public relations companies have been queueing up to get McGarvey anywhere near the Rapid party in Scotland over the past 24 hours. Pacult was prompted into admitting he had never heard of McGarvey until recently, but that will not stop the Rapid coach pinning some of his words on a dressing-room wall.

The former striker's rantings have been unnecessary. McGarvey even claimed that Uefa should somehow intervene because Rapid will be wearing a red strip, à la Old Trafford, tonight. Under this theory Rapid, presumably looking to win this game and maintain their impressive start to the Europa League, would deliberately seek to antagonise and fire up the opposition. Hardly likely, Frank.

Davie Provan is another who has made it perfectly plain he will "raise a glass" in the event Celtic defeat the Austrians. Provan, around the time of the last Rapid debacle, embellished a "challenge" from the Hearts winger Willie Johnston at Parkhead so much that the Edinburgh side's chairman, Wallace Mercer, was prompted into threatening comments regarding lawyers and court cases.

Grant, now a part of the Celtic coaching team, is unwilling to let sleeping dogs lie. The Rapid players, as already stated, would hardly regard him as an innocent party either. Grant's theory, along with that of many others who should probably know better, is that Celtic were denied a Cup Winners' Cup final against Everton. In fact they would have had two further rounds to overcome that season and nothing the club did in European competition over virtually the next two decades in Europe endorses the idea that a final berth was theirs for the taking.

The basic premise for the match in Manchester was ridiculous; the replay should never have been ordered. It is entirely correct that those around at the time recall Weinhofer's behaviour in a negative light. Nonetheless, those who seek to use tonight's match as some form of potential retribution for Celtic must recall that their players and supporters were far from the put-upon, innocent party, notwithstanding the fact football took place in a distinctly more volatile environment off the field than now. If said bottle had not been thrown on to the pitch, Manchester would never have happened. And maybe, just maybe, there have been times in Celtic's history when their team have used dubious on-field tactics to their own ends.

Thankfully the Celtic manager, Tony Mowbray, is unwilling to use events of 1984 as a motivating factor today. Mowbray, in fact, seems rather bemused by the furore. His players, judging by McManus's comments, are utterly uninterested in anything more than kick-starting their European campaign.

Let's hope those who have attempted to build matters up do not trigger the kind of scenes which should be left in the past. The chances are they won't; what price this evening's game being an utterly damb squib?